In the Ponemon Institute’s study, “Trends in Insider Compliance with Data Security Policies,” a majority of respondents admit to serious non-compliant workplace behaviors that place their companies at risk. Such behaviors include the insecure use of USB memory sticks, Web-based email, social media, mobile devices and more. What’s more, the problem seems to be getting worse. The report sites lost or missing USB memory sticks and other portable data-bearing devices that often not reported to the company or are reported when it is too late.

Two key findings?

Employee attitudes about their employees affect the level of compliant vs. non-compliant behavior.

Employees do not believe their organizations provide ample training or adequate policies to inform them about data protection and security practices.

So, how does your company stack up against the percentages? 61 percent of end users transfer confidential data onto a USB stick and 71 percent says that others do it. What if there was a way to easily transfer sensitive, proprietary and confidential company and client information without using the number 1 cause of lost data? A secure, ad hoc Managed File Transfer solution can let your employees send up to 2GB of confidential information of files without even leaving their email client. No training, no ramp-up time and the ability to track messages and files. Sound too good to be true? Learn more.

In a recent report by the Smart Card Alliance entitled, “Medical Identity Theft in Healthcare,” the study sites that, “Further evidence of the significance of the medical fraud problem is the allocation of $1.7 billion for fraud detection in the 2011 U.S. Health and Human Services budget.” In 2009 alone, 68 reported healthcare data breaches in the U.S. put over 11.3 million patient records at risk according to the Identity Theft and Resource Center (ITRC).

The report goes on to state that “the way to stop medical identity theft confusion is to improve patient identification and provide enhanced data production through strong authentication and encryption.” How can a healthcare organization achieve this? B2B Managed File Transfer. Protection of patient information does not happen just inside the four walls of your organization. Think of the providers, health record banks, health insurance and hospital Web portals.

The key is two-factor authentication and data encryption. Are you employing these security methodologies at your organization?

Can you guarantee the security of customer and company information with today’s available communication tools?

As a business professional, there are a number of tools from which to choose for communication and collaboration. It would be impossible to conduct business everyday without email. Additionally, you use solutions such as FTP to send large files to colleagues, business partners and clients. In a hurry, you may use expensive, expedited shipping services or a courier for your confidential and proprietary documents.

While there are many forms of communication, do you have 100 percent confidence that the content of the message or file being exchanged is secure? While these services, “get the job done” in most cases, they ineffective, costly and provide no guarantee that your documents will arrive securely or on time. So how can you transfer messages and files securely, instantly and a reasonable price?

A secure business communications solution can be used to exchange information or files quickly and securely inside and outside of your organization. As easy-to-use as email, a secure business communications solution, enables you to send important, confidential or proprietary information instantly. Just type a message or attach a file and click to send.

Business communications today is a complex issue for most organizations. With so many tools, whether its email, mobile apps or FTP, it is difficult for users to know the most effective solution for sending confidential or proprietary information. From an information security standpoint, these data exchange solutions are insecure, ineffective and can potentially cause data breaches within your organization.

As an IT manager, are you constantly concerned with how and what information your employees are exchanging within and outside your organization? With a secure business communications solution, you gain visibility and control over your organization’s business communications with process status, exceptions and transactions and trends. Additionally, deploying via SaaS provides an affordable cost of ownership and quick return on investment due to ease of use and quick implementation.

Finally, providing your business users with a way to communicate securely and seamlessly without disrupting their daily activities enables you to relax knowing they aren’t circumventing IT by uses one-off, insecure communication methods to get their job done.

Do you know how your users send out confidential or sensitive information?

In an Information Week Analytics report, “Inside Out: Protecting Your Partnerships and Your Data,” Curtis Franklin, Jr. of Dark Reading writes, “Partners are a critical element (to enterprise security) – in fact, their importance is matched only by the potential threat they pose to the security of corporate data and the network infrastructure. For IT professionals, the vital question is how to balance trust versus risk in enabling communication between the organization and partners.”

Secure all points of contact with partners.

The report adds, “there have been instances in which partner connections were used to steal data or sabotage computer systems. These breaches show us that enterprises must stay vigilant about security, even in dealing with their closest and most trusted suppliers.” Other findings? “The difference between employee and partner risk varies by industry – in food service, partners accounted for as many as 70 percent of breaches; in the technology arena, partners accounted for only 18 percent.”

While concrete corporate security policies, firewalls and other security measures, help alleviate the threat, how do you ensure B2B partner and trading partner security is achieved while still optimizing those partnerships, making it easier for your partners to do business with you?

B2B Managed File Transfer – From secure ad-hoc file transfer to EDI to enterprise-wide Managed File Transfer a complete B2B communications solution can prevent these breaches from happening to you. Because whether the breach is accidental or intentional, the damage has still been done.

In the InformationWeek article, “The Sprawl Stops Here!,” Michael Biddick makes important points in the benefits of application consolidation. The article starts out with the statement, “Application consolidation should never go out of style.” The debate between growth and trimming maintenance and support costs seems to be an argument that will continue to polarize IT executives. Moreover, the article states, “in terms of business justification, the case for consolidating apps is one of the easiest to make but the hardest to implement.”

Why? Most people don’t like change. Many people, may in fact, have a vested interest in an application, whether homegrown, customized or proprietary. The article states, “custom products cost more to maintain than commercial alternatives, if they exist.” To successfully consolidate application across the enterprise, all affected departments need to be on board. This often becomes challenging, especially in time of mergers & acquisitions, when tensions are high and most staff members are thinking about redundant positions or departments. Also, preferred applications or custom-built applications will be met with much opposition due to the resources and time put into developing the app. The question becomes: “Is there business value in the app?”

Consolidation drivers are clear: reduce cost and complexity. Biddick writes, “The more complex the software and systems involved, the greater the return for consolidation.”

Applications that are interoperable can bring further consolidation. What if you were able to consolidate your file transfer along with your job scheduling processes? The result would be increased visibility enterprise-wide, better communications between departments, less complexity, and ultimately affecting the bottom line.